Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

 Xbox 360
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 72 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 57 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 72
  3. Negative: 3 out of 72

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  1. LamyaaA
    Dec 11, 2009
    9
    Man, I love this game and I believe that every house in the US should have this game. This game has much beauty and not just in its looks.Its got fun written all over it.This is a game that has replay value that wont end until your fingers get tired,GREAT GAME!!I give it a 9.5
  2. FreelanceJournalist
    Feb 6, 2006
    9
    Easily one of the best Xbox Live Arcade titles. I've been a fan since its appearance on Project Gotham Racing 2. This new, full version is a sight to behold. The graphics are amazing, with infinite particles and a sublime assault on your eyes. The play is frenetic as can be, on par with some of the best shmups out there. No gamer should pass it up.
  3. RobertS.
    Mar 20, 2006
    9
    I purchased this game off of the xbox live market place 3 days ago and I've been playing it ever since. I didn't think a classic type of arcade game could take away from my obsession with call of duty 2 but it did. Buy this game if you havn't yet!
  4. IdleT.
    Mar 30, 2007
    10
    The graphics are simple yet beautiful. There are a bunch of nice touches, for example, the space "grid" being distorted by black holes, and black holes circling each other. The game is hard - play the trial version and make sure you can consistently last more than the 4 minutes before buying. This is a very addictive game, a bite-sized snack that you want to eat over and over again. You The graphics are simple yet beautiful. There are a bunch of nice touches, for example, the space "grid" being distorted by black holes, and black holes circling each other. The game is hard - play the trial version and make sure you can consistently last more than the 4 minutes before buying. This is a very addictive game, a bite-sized snack that you want to eat over and over again. You WILL improve, and chasing your own high score will fuel the addiction. But what might draw you in is that rush of adrenalin that you feel for 5 minutes and the brief, fleeting sense of mastery when you clear the screen of enemies that you used to have to bomb to get rid of. Best $5 I ever spent on a game.… Expand
  5. Syc
    Nov 9, 2006
    5
    An okay shooter that contains the frenzied nature of its superior brothers such as Ikaruga but lacks the intellegence, precision and depth to be anything more than a minor diversion.
  6. JasonH.
    Mar 8, 2006
    10
    Probably my favorite game on the 360. I've spent hours playing this game trying to better my high score. I haven't care about my high score since I was playing an Atari 2600 when I was a kid. Current high score is 1.16 million.
  7. AlexL.
    Mar 9, 2006
    10
    What an absolute gem! Simple yet brilliant. And with such hidden depth as your skills improve. Give it some time... I can't think of another game that is such a test of reflex and reaction speed. Its delivered brilliantly with superb graphics, despite their simplicity. Is this possibly a perfect game? Beats the lack lustre performance from so many of the other supposed "better" games What an absolute gem! Simple yet brilliant. And with such hidden depth as your skills improve. Give it some time... I can't think of another game that is such a test of reflex and reaction speed. Its delivered brilliantly with superb graphics, despite their simplicity. Is this possibly a perfect game? Beats the lack lustre performance from so many of the other supposed "better" games in many ways.… Expand
  8. CiaranG.
    Apr 1, 2006
    7
    Simple and fun, sometimes addictive game. The concept is of a classic arcade game but now its on Xbox 360. Very colourful game. Almost like watching a fireworks show. Some people may be bored by it if they're not particularly good at it (like me). But you're likely to spend hours playing it if you want to keep beating your high-scores or moving up the leaderboards.
  9. DavideF.
    May 15, 2006
    10
    A masterpiece...retro evolved!
  10. DavidS.
    May 8, 2006
    9
    Man i downloaded the demo.... al i can say is wow... the age of arcade games in on... when you get a new high score you stop for a sec and think "I bet i can beat that" and you lose another 2-3 hours in it.
  11. AnthonyV.
    Jun 9, 2006
    10
    It's games like this that make you wonder if it's reeeeally worth it to hire a team of 500 people to do an RPG, sell it for $60, and have it be a commercial failure. Escpecially when one person can spend a month (if that) making Geometry Wars on a cheap piece of middleware, selling it for $5, and having it be one of the best games on the system. Hopefully games like this are a It's games like this that make you wonder if it's reeeeally worth it to hire a team of 500 people to do an RPG, sell it for $60, and have it be a commercial failure. Escpecially when one person can spend a month (if that) making Geometry Wars on a cheap piece of middleware, selling it for $5, and having it be one of the best games on the system. Hopefully games like this are a wakeup call to the videogame industry, and hopefully they'll heed that warning before their overbloated budgets and "it's all about the graphics" attitude punctures a Titanic-worthy blowhole into the industry and sinks it worse than the crash of 1985.… Expand
  12. ChrisK.
    Aug 8, 2006
    10
    This game is simply incredible. It's easy to learn yet very addictive and fun. The graphics are simplistic but have a certain beauty to them. It is however the gameplay that drives this game home. I have probably put more hours into this game than any of my other xbox 360 games. This title has a replayability to it that many other games don't. Furthermore the price tag of around This game is simply incredible. It's easy to learn yet very addictive and fun. The graphics are simplistic but have a certain beauty to them. It is however the gameplay that drives this game home. I have probably put more hours into this game than any of my other xbox 360 games. This title has a replayability to it that many other games don't. Furthermore the price tag of around 5$ means this gamecosts less than a tenth of any other xbox 360 game that you'll but at the store. I have probably spent more time playing Geometry Wars than the combined playing hours of any 2 of my other xbox 360 games. This game is a must buy. Low price, more QUALITY gaming time.… Expand
  13. RichF.
    Apr 9, 2007
    10
    This isn't a game, it's a lifestyle. When is the MMO coming out?
  14. EricD.
    Feb 2, 2006
    10
    Am I saying this is a 10 because it's better than something like Call of Duty? No way. But, it's a ten in the 360 arcade world. Everyone who comes over to check out my 360 leave talking about Geo Wars. It's fun. It's challenging. It's addicting. It's memories of Astroids on the ol' Atari...only better.
  15. SpencerH.
    Mar 7, 2006
    10
    If you have a 360 and you havn't tried this demo, you should stop wondering and download it NOW! Honestly its like asteroids on steroids, and some of my friends have even told me that the graphics and colors are "beautiful" believe it or not. In my opinion this game is one of the top arcade games so far and it will keep me entartained forever.
  16. JamesC.
    Aug 9, 2006
    10
    By far the best arcade game released on the 360. It was worth all of the $5 if not more. If anything i would tell people to buy a 360 just for this game. It is a must purchase.
  17. MannS.
    Sep 15, 2006
    9
    Back to basics, with a sweet sweet bang!
  18. RedXIII
    Sep 20, 2006
    8
    This game is very simple yet very addicting, when I first downloaded it I didnt play any other game for a couple of days. The only reason that it gets an 8 is that the achievements are next to impossible to do, i have done 4 of them but the others are impossible. This game would have gotten a 9-10 score. Overall if you like simple arcade games, this ones for you.
  19. CoryD.
    Dec 27, 2007
    8
    Great and also horribly frustrating, this is one of the first Xlive Arcade games you should get... it's so simple, addictive, and at time will make you wanna throw your controller out the window.. Be warned! lol
  20. KeeganH.
    Jan 8, 2007
    10
    One of the best games ever that will be released for the Xbox 360. I personally spent hours playing this game, though, it costs $5 if you HAVE Xbox Live. If you don't you have to buy it at the store in the Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged, which costs a little bit more. I must have some kind of thing with this game, because I'm so good with this game, I'm at the top of the Xbox One of the best games ever that will be released for the Xbox 360. I personally spent hours playing this game, though, it costs $5 if you HAVE Xbox Live. If you don't you have to buy it at the store in the Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged, which costs a little bit more. I must have some kind of thing with this game, because I'm so good with this game, I'm at the top of the Xbox Live Leaderboard on this game, and I didn't have to practice that much. As soon as I picked up the game, I was scoring about 200,000 points each game (with the free demo). Since the game was so addictive, I downloaded the full game for $5. Since then, I play this game every now and then, and now I score upwards of 3 million points. As most games, this game is more deep than it appears at first glance. It requires a HUGE amount of strategy and knowledge of the game, such as what to do on certain enemy formations that spawn. Also, there is a glitch in the game, where if a snake circle formation spawns while you are on the wall, you will die instantly. This glitch becomes slightly annoying when you are a beginner, but once you learn to learn to avoid the walls as much as possible, which requires a lot of skill to avoid. Though, hopefully this glitch is never fixed in the patch, because it is one of the only things that prevent the game from becoming too easy (Well... easy for me atleast). I just want to mention that somebody said the achievements were impossible to unlock in a review. I just want to say, that I've unlocked all the achievements but 1 so far (survive 1 million... which I get almost every time, but die just before I reach it). The achievements are probably too easy to unlock actually. The game deserves a 10, hands down. I have never played a game with such a simple concept that is so fun. it is, in my opinion, one of the top games for any console ever made. The game, as I said, is deeper than it appears at first glance. As most arcade games, you are rewarded a life usually when you reach so many points. Geometry Wars does the same thing... Though it does it better. Every 75,000 points, you get a life, every 100,000 points, you get a bomb (which will kill all onscreen enemies), and every 10,000 points you get a weapon upgrade. This seems like a simple concept, but for a good player, you need to use this to your advantage. That means, don't die. As long as you don't die, you get a increased multiplier as you destroy enemies which will quickly get you up in the high scores. That seems simple enough. Don't die... Wrong... Unless you play this game and develop a good strategy, you will probably die... a LOT! Though, fortuantely, I have the game Smash TV, and that game makes this game look REALLY easy. But of course this game is a whole lot funner. You will probably play this games for multiple hours, while each time you get a game over, you tell yourself, just one more game, and soon you realize that you spent half your day playing this game. Also, this game includes Geometry Wars Retro, which is the older version of the game. Retro is much harder than Geometry Wars Evolved (the main version)... at first... But there is a hard cap on the game. Which means, it gets hard... Up to a point, then the game just seems to stay the same. While most people don't seem good enough to get there, if you do, getting a very high score is quite easy. Evolved begins a lot easier, though the game (if you survive of course) gets a lot harder than Retro would ever dream of. The graphics are quite good, and it may take you a while to stop dieing, because you seem to keep staring at the explosions and the wave weapon that you get. After a while though, you eventually get used to stop staring at these dazzling effects. The controls are also quite intresting. You use the left thumbstick to move, the right thumbstick to shoot, and the triggers to use a bomb (controls can be changed of course). I didn't find the controls hard to use, because I was used to playing Smash TV, which uses the same controls. Though, I heard that the controls can be quite troublesome for beginners. Hopefully that won't scare you away. If you have Xbox Live, I recommend downloading the Free Trial, and if it turns out to be the type of game that you like, you can easily get the full version for only a small amount of $5. This game deserves a 10, because, not only does it beat the other Xbox 360 games down (with a few exceptions), it also costs about 10x less than them.… Expand
  21. AdamB.
    Aug 7, 2009
    7
    Addicting, but incredibly frustrating. Games are slow to start up and essentially over the moment you lose your first ship, because your combo is lost with it, making it much too difficult to place anywhere on the high score list (be prepared to stay around 300,000th place). There are also no unlockables or multiplayer modes. The sequels improved on these problems but introduced unwelcome Addicting, but incredibly frustrating. Games are slow to start up and essentially over the moment you lose your first ship, because your combo is lost with it, making it much too difficult to place anywhere on the high score list (be prepared to stay around 300,000th place). There are also no unlockables or multiplayer modes. The sequels improved on these problems but introduced unwelcome complexity. Hardcore shooter fans should give Geometry Wars a try for some frantic, near-impossible gaming, but more casual gamers looking for a more deliberate, rewarding experience should check out something like Schizoid.… Expand
  22. BasilM.
    Nov 23, 2007
    5
    I have been an avid reader of video game reviews for over 20 years now. I have got to say I have never been so surprised by critical reaction than I have with this game. 99.9% of the time I agree with the masses, but I can't even begin to fathom how somebody could get addicted to this game unless you are stuck in the 1970's. Don't get me wrong, I like this game... it's I have been an avid reader of video game reviews for over 20 years now. I have got to say I have never been so surprised by critical reaction than I have with this game. 99.9% of the time I agree with the masses, but I can't even begin to fathom how somebody could get addicted to this game unless you are stuck in the 1970's. Don't get me wrong, I like this game... it's very cool. But there is plenty of room for improvement, painfully shallow and shouldn't be getting 9's and 10's across the board. It must be because it is cheap and was, at the time, the best XBLA game available.… Expand
  23. ACE5
    Nov 28, 2006
    10
    Simple, yet complicated and addicting. GW is like the NBA," I love this game."
  24. Watermelon789
    Aug 24, 2011
    9
    When it comes to simple concepts Geometry Wars prevail in that from. Challenging, Fun, impossible. Geometry Wars is just to dam-- hard but dam--- fun. Just like the studio, Bizarre until the end.
  25. MrMushroom
    Jul 17, 2011
    10
    I love this game. The visuals are like an Einstein equation in 3D color. The control is simple. The gameplay is highly addictive. I find that I often set down for a quick round or two and before I know it I've lost hours. Two thumbs up!
  26. VLG
    Aug 22, 2023
    8
    I loved the game, but i sucked ass. I never went too far, which is a pity. I would have loved to play it for more than 10 minutes lol.

Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Best Xbox 360 Game of 2005
10
#10 Most Discussed Xbox 360 Game of 2005

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 26
  3. Negative: 0 out of 26
  1. IGN
    80
    If you're looking for a throwback to the Space Invader days with the futuristic colors and sound of the powerful 360, this is your game.
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  2. WHAM! Gaming
    80
    The game is challenging as all heck and you’ll sometimes wonder how you would ever get out of a predicament with a million enemies coming at you all at once in every direction without a super bomb, but it keeps you coming back for more, no doubt. Top notch in every way.
    Read full review
  3. GameSpot
    82
    A refreshingly simple, addictive experience that combines appealing graphics and frantic gameplay.
    Read full review
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